Jerome Baker – December 25, 2022 (Postgame)
Sunday, December 25, 2022
Postgame – Green Bay
LB Jerome Baker
(What changed in the second half for you guys?) – “We didn’t execute. We didn’t stop them on third downs, we didn’t get off the field. That’s the main thing. We didn’t execute as a team and that was the result.”
(The wins have come in bunches and the losses have come in bunches. It seems the team is really streaky. Can you put your finger on why it’s happening that way?) – “I can’t put my finger on it. If I did, I would have figured it out and stopped it, but that’s part of the game. We lose and we just have to get back next week and get back on track. That’s all we can do. It’s Christmas and we can’t take this home to our families. We still have to enjoy our families. Really just lock in next week and come in tomorrow and get back to work.”
(The goal is still in front of you if you win the last two so how do you keep that mindset going?) – “Don’t even think about it. We got another game next week. We’ve got to focus in on that. That’s how our approach will be. We’re going to go in tomorrow and look at the film and see how we can get better and get better and focus on next week.”
Raheem Mostert – December 25, 2022 (Postgame)
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Sunday, December 25, 2022
Postgame – Green Bay
RB Raheem Mostert
(What was different in the second half?) – “I think it was more of the mental mistakes. We didn’t capitalize when we needed to and then the turnovers. That’s definitely not going to go in our favor. If you win the turnover battle, you practically have a better chance to win the game. We didn’t capitalize on that”
(On the interception, it looked like you were the intended receiver. Was there miscommunication there? Was that route supposed to be different?) – “The route was supposed to be different. That was on my part. I didn’t mentally rep that, like I said, I got to go back and figure out what needs to be done. But that was definitely my fault. That’s not Tua’s fault at all.”
(On approach going forward and how the season has gone) – “I think the biggest thing for us is we take it week by week. This season has gone just the way we planned it. We knew we were going to have some tough games and we knew we were going to lose some crazy ones, some unfortunate ones. But you have to look at it as a one week season. So that’s basically how we operate.”
Terron Armstead – December 25, 2022 (Postgame)
Sunday, December 25, 2022
Postgame – Green Bay
T Terron Armstead
(You are one of the few players with playoff experience on this team, what is different about these late December games?) – “It seems like they are all playoff games—pre-playoffs, if that’s a phrase. They are important. They are vital. The important thing is to continue to improve; you want to get hot going into the playoffs. We’re on a bit of a skid right now, but we have a chance to get this next one and keep our playoff hopes alive.”
(You guys as a line have not been penalized a lot this year. A couple costly holdings—what did you feel like happened today?) – “Yeah. We just have to keep working on our fundamentals and technique. That is one thing we pride ourselves on, not having the negative plays, staying on schedule, not getting behind the chains. We helped ourselves especially early in the game.”
(How does the offense find the groove that it once had when you guys were on a five-win run?) – “Consistency. Being consistent. The intention is there – the will, the effort – it’s all there, but that doesn’t win you games. Continue to work; working on the details, fundamentals, penalties, things like that. Turnovers, it’s hard to win a game with turnovers. So we need to get back to business and lock in maybe even a little bit more on those small things, small intangibles.”
(What does it take to come back tomorrow not dwell on the losses and remember everything you want is still ahead of you—does it take leaders, what does it take?) – “It is a collection of leadership, especially guys with experience that have been through this. But it is really just an understanding of what does dwelling on the last four (games) do for you moving forward? Anything past doesn’t help your present or future so learn from mistakes—the reasons we have fought going through this losing streak and then we build and move forward and get the next one.”
Jaylen Waddle – December 25, 2022 (Postgame)
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Sunday, December 25, 2022
Postgame – Green Bay
WR Jaylen Waddle
(Is there a sense of optimism knowing you guys have everything you still want right in front of you?) – “We’re just going to take it one day at a time, one practice at a time. (We’ll) learn from our mistakes over the past few weeks and try to get better. Just go out there and compete.”
(Can you walk us through that touchdown in the first half?) – “They just called my number. Tua (Tagovailoa) gave me a ball. You have to credit ‘Reek’ (Tyreek Hill), he had some good downfield blocking to really spring me. Some of the people you won’t hear about during the play, they were the guys that really got the play to work.”
(What’s the confidence level that this team has that you can turn this thing around?) – “We’re very confident. I feel like we all know we’re a better team than what we’ve been showing. So just knowing that, that’s our confidence. Knowing how we prepare, how hard we work throughout the week. It not showing up on Sundays, obviously that’s not what we want, but we have to keep going, keep working, just keep playing.”
Kader Kohou – December 25, 2022 (Postgame)
Sunday, December 25, 2022
Postgame – Green Bay
CB Kader Kohou
(What is it about Aaron Rodgers? Seemed like they were getting good field position all game but you guys held up pretty well.) – “He is just a hall of famer so he does a lot of good things. Can’t really say too much about it. He is just Aaron Rodgers.”
(How do you come in tomorrow and put four games behind and know that because everything is on the line, the next two weeks everything is still in front of you?) – “I mean I feel like we attack every game like that, but we definitely have to go back and see what we messed up on and fix all the little things because we do have to win out now. It’s crunch time.”
(What went through your mind when you hauled in that interception?) – “I really don’t even remember. I was so hype. I thought I had a celebration ready, but I went left and just went to the sideline.”
(What did Head Coach Mike McDaniel say to you guys afterwards?) – “He was pretty positive. I feel like it was one that we just let slip away, so we’re just going to go back and watch some film and try to get ready for the Patriots next week.”
Tua Tagovailoa – December 25, 2022 (Postgame)
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Sunday, December 25, 2022
Postgame – Green Bay
QB Tua Tagovailoa (Transcribed by ASAP Sports)
Q: The three fourth-quarter interceptions, can you take us through what happened on each one?
TUA TAGOVAILOA: On the first one, I tried to throw it over a defender, but I ended up really throwing over the defender and Tyreek (Hill), so that one got away. The second one, I might have said the wrong play. I’m not too sure. But there was just some communication errors on that. Then the third one was just not a good ball for my receivers to have been able to make a play on that. You know, it’s tough. You get an opportunity to play on Christmas Day against a really good team, and I go out there and really — not being able to put my best foot forward for our team. In hindsight, this is something that we’ve got to be able to just move on from. Like I say with ‘Bev,’ (Darrell Bevell) he says, ‘let every play stand on its own merit.’ So for this game, we want this game to stand on its own merit, as well. Obviously we’re going to learn from these mistakes, but this isn’t something that after a loss we should be going home and taking to our families, our kids, our other halves. We leave it all here and we go enjoy Christmas, and then we come back in when time is, and we learn from it.
Q: Moving quickly to the next opponent, how long do you all try to dwell on the loss?
TUA TAGOVAILOA: Yeah, I would say it’s tough for a competitor because there’s always, ‘if I would have did this, we could have won, if I would have did that, we could have won.’ It’s always tough, but the challenge is to be able to just separate what you do here and what you do at home really and kind of just get your mind off it so that when you do come in, you have a clear mind. You’re not just focused on whatever particular play that was that you messed up on, and that everyone has the chance to learn from that mistake.
Q: On the second drive where you had the second interception, it seemed like you were getting to the line particularly late – 8, 7 seconds left on the clock. Was that intentional? If not, how may have that play into some of the miscommunications and just issues that you had?
TUA TAGOVAILOA: Yeah, it wasn’t intentional. I was just trying to get the play out to the guys and just try to make sure everyone was going in the right spots. But just the miscommunication with the entirety of the plays is sort of what went wrong with that interception.
Q: You guys finished with 270 yards of offense in the first half and you threw for 229 yards. Up until the fumble right before half, everything was going pretty well. Did they do anything differently in the second half?
TUA TAGOVAILOA: I would say no, they didn’t do anything new or different. They were playing the same defense, the same way that they played in the first half. But offensively we just didn’t capitalize on our opportunities and we were killing ourselves with a lot of the penalties that had happened off of explosive plays.
Q: When you look at those illegal formation penalties and what not, just where does that stem from?
TUA TAGOVAILOA: I think it stems from me trying to spit the formation out to the guys, the motions, and then when we do break, me realizing how much time I have and then just sending guys already, and there’s times where we’ve got to wait for guys to get set so that one takes the ball, one gets off and dead motions, and those were kind of the mishaps with that today.
Q: It’s been kind of a strange season in the sense that it’s been one streak after another streak and then after another streak. You’ve got two games left; you win and you’re in the playoffs. How do you keep the confidence up with this group?
TUA TAGOVAILOA: Yeah, well, I would say it’s easy to keep the confidence up with this group. I think we all believe in each other. I would say we all love one another. We’re all invested into each other as well. I don’t think it’s a time for us to blink. Like we just move on and we learn from it. We’ve got another tough team that we’ve got to go to and play.
Q: On your touchdown pass to Jaylen Waddle, what impressed you most about that catch and run?
TUA TAGOVAILOA: Really nothing… I was waiting for a reaction. (laughter) No, but like in all seriousness, that’s something that I’ve seen Jaylen (Waddle) do many times, and that’s a testament to how he comes out to work every day, with how he finishes plays, and him and Tyreek (Hill) being able to get the guys in that room better by just going out and doing things like that. Obviously, I’d say that’s very, very impressive; you don’t just do that coming off the bench. That’s the first play of the drive we had on the second series, I think, and that just doesn’t happen. It’s cool and it helps that he’s on our team.
Q: Can you detail what you saw on the long pass to WR Tyreek Hill?
TUA TAGOVAILOA: Yeah, sort of looked like they were playing six-strong. It was like quarters to Jaylen’s (Waddle) side, and then it was Cover 2 to Tyreek’s (Hill) side and I was just trying to pin down the backside safety and then hit Tyreek.
Q: Going out for the final possession there, even though the offense hadn’t really moved in the second half, you still had a chance obviously to win. What’s your thinking as you’re going out there on the field?
TUA TAGOVAILOA: We’ve got to go win this. That’s all there was. We’ve got to go win this. Just very unfortunate. It was just terrible how everything ended. Like I told the guys, that’s on me. I will definitely get better from that.
Mike McDaniel – December 25, 2022 (Postgame)
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Sunday, December 25, 2022
Postgame – Green Bay
Head Coach Mike McDaniel (Transcribed by ASAP Sports)
Q: Going scoreless the second half, three second-half interceptions by QB Tua Tagovailoa. Just what happened to the offense especially with those turnovers?
MIKE McDANIEL: Yeah, I thought it was unexpected. Did not foresee that happening. I felt strong coming out of halftime, just where our guys were at. I didn’t foresee standing up here really in this situation. I know the team feels the same way. Apparently we needed another gut check, and we’ve got to — there were critical errors, turnovers. I mean, the percentages of winning games where you’re — what were we, minus 3? You turn the ball over four times; yeah, you’re not going to win the football game. I thought on top of all that, there was some uncharacteristic really, really controllable penalties that were absolutely devastating. It’s hard to continually move the ball, and we weren’t taking advantage of some of the situations in the first half as well because we were putting ourselves behind the 8-ball with controllable penalties. And then in the second half it was much of the same. It wasn’t for a lack of effort, but there’s just some things that, regardless of what people try to do, the mainstays of football, if you don’t do right by alignments, you don’t do right by protecting the football, these are the things that will happen. Our young team is having to learn the very, very hard way, and so nothing has really changed moving forward except for the fact that we were really expecting to cleanse ourselves of this feeling and we’re going to have to wait another week to try to get right.
Q: A quick follow-up to that specifically on QB Tua Tagovailoa’s interceptions, all three of them just seemed like kind of pitch and catch right to Green Bay. Was that communication issues or anything else that stood out on those three?
MIKE McDANIEL: We’ll try to identify exactly what was going on and how we got to that place. It’s one of those things that I want to be careful before speaking too absolute. It felt like it was situations where the ball just kind of got away from Tua, which is not characteristic for him by any means. He was executing at a pretty high level to start the game, and I don’t know where that went, but that’s something that him and I will really comb over, but it wasn’t just that. There were some pass exclusive situations we kind of put ourselves in that really took us out of some of our run plan situations. We play our best ball when we’re able to keep the defense on their toes in both phases, and when you’re having those mishaps and then the defense gets paid, too; they were kind of compressing us in the second half, and I think those compounding variables really hurt the team’s chances of winning the football game.
Q: You’ve spoken several times this season about how hard QB Tua Tagovailoa can be on himself, his own worst critic kind of thing. Given the three interceptions tonight, how much of a challenge do you have to make sure Tua’s head is in the right place for the last two games?
MIKE McDANIEL: It’s a challenge, but it’s also something that every quarterback really goes through. It’s kind of one of those necessary things that you have to really figure out how you don’t let mistakes snowball and that’s one of the reasons the approach and the way we’ve gone about things has been so intentional in that regard, because you can’t let past influence the present. I think that there could be some portions of that that have to do with him kind of snowballing in his own mind, but he’s such a strong individual that the good news is that I’m very confident that he’ll be able to get through that. It’s just that this team needs him. This team needs myself to make sure that all those situations are not putting him behind the 8-ball. And then the quarterback needs the rest of his team to be able to execute so that he doesn’t have to do too much on his own. There was one of the interceptions that the primary receiver kind of busted, ran the wrong route, a concept that we ran numerous times this week, and so it’s not just him. I’ll look at the tape and have probably more concrete answers for you guys tomorrow, but overall, that is a team failure, not a one-person failure.
Q: And beyond QB Tua Tagovailoa what do you tell the team as a whole? Now this is four straight losses to not allow us to snowball you do still control your own fate?
MIKE McDANIEL: No, that’s exactly what it is. Human nature is what you have to fight. It is very, very hard to put in as much as these guys put in and keep coming up short. I recognize it as kind of what you’re looking for generally in life and in competitors and people, is you want people to not blink at situations that a lot of people would, and it’s going to take a team that’s really tight and close to not allow anyone to press and really have these situations manifest anything but improvement. We’ve been learning hard lessons for the last month of games, and at some point if we want to make the next step, we’re going to have to put up or shut up. It is tough, but also nothing comes easy in this game, and the one thing I do know is if you’re able to dig yourself out of it, it does benefit you in the next phase of the season because that’s where you don’t want to have wilting or snowballing of play or really not-clean football. Bottom line is it is what it is. What type of people are we and are we able to really get through this together, because there’s no one else outside of that team meeting room that’s going to come save us. We have to figure it out ourselves.
Q: Why has the team struggled over the past month to sustain drives from your perspective and make that in a way you getting too reliant on the big explosive play to score?
MIKE McDANIEL: It is tough to execute. I think in this particular game, I felt like it was sustaining really clean football because I felt like we did score on some big plays and we were moving the ball in other situations and we would convert 3rd downs, but it was really the self-inflicted wounds for this game that really cost us. I’m not sure if that was necessarily the case in the previous weeks. Definitely not to this magnitude. We just last week didn’t have any turnovers. So to go from zero turnovers to four is going to impact the game in a grave way. I think those are two independent situations. Each game stands on its own merit really. I think this one in particular we learned again the value of possessing the ball, not giving it back. At this point in the year, if you don’t play clean football and you have a team that’s — to the credit of the Green Bay Packers, they had their moment during the season pretty similar to this, as well, and they found a way to clean that up and played a very good football game and didn’t blink themselves. That’s a lesson that we can take from them as we move forward.
Q: On the defense’s final drive I think it was second-and-2 within the 10-yard line and DT John Jenkins jumped offsides. Was that on purpose and if so can you kind of explain the rationale and the thinking behind that?
MIKE McDANIEL: I think that situational football comes down to time, and second-and-2 and you’re kind of assessing really how much time they have, how much time you have, and wanting to really make sure that you are clean with all the time. It was I think we were coming out of a timeout, it was second-and-2, so in those situations if you feel confident about being able to stop a team, I think we could get it before the two-minute warning if our math was correct. So in that situation we enable our players to really be aggressive and guess the snap count. So if it is anything but a quick snap, you probably will jump offsides, which gives you a first-and-10 on the stopped clock. If you do guess the snap count right, then hopefully you have penetration and you can move the ball back. That was one of those situations that we kind of enacted, which is why we — something that you probably wouldn’t do if the clock wasn’t already stopped and it wasn’t in that four-to three-and-a-half-minute range.
Q: There was a situation early in the third quarter where Packers TE Marcedes Lewis caught a pass for 31 yards and it helped set up a touchdown. On the replays Mike Pereira on the telecast said that a challenge would have overturned that catch. What was the thinking there? Did you consider a challenge?
MIKE McDANIEL: Well, obviously I didn’t get access, nor did the people upstairs really get access to the review in time. That’s something that’s standard operating procedure where especially in a game like that, you have to be right with your challenges because those timeouts are costly. If I would have received any sort of concrete information, I definitely would have thrown it, but from the coaches upstairs, they didn’t receive clean information fast enough, nor did I. Unfortunately, hindsight is 20/20 on that one. Obviously I would have loved to challenge that had I gotten the information quick enough.
Mike McDaniel – December 23, 2022
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Friday, December 23, 2022
Head Coach Mike McDaniel
(So will OL Liam Eichenberg be activated for Sunday?) – “There’s some moving parts in that. I think if he is to be, that affects our roster. So you learn about yourself over the course of an NFL season. I’ve learned to expect the unexpected, so that’s what I’m expecting. We’re still talking about it.”
(And then the calf injuries for WR River Cracraft and T Eric Fisher – would those injuries put them in jeopardy of IR, missing the rest of the season?) – “No, it was an ambitious game of calf raise max outs. (laughter) Just kidding. No, they’re both not – they are not extremely serious, but it has put their ability to play in this particular game in question.”
(WR Jaylen Waddle, how has he been able to avoid the sophomore slump this year with WR Tyreek Hill breaking single-season records?) – “I think first and foremost, Jaylen Waddle is taking responsibility in that. It is a thing. The reason why that’s a saying is because that does happen. I think it also has to do with his position coach who passionately stays after him in Wes Welker. I think it has a lot to do with Tyreek (Hill) in general, that greatness raises the standard of everyone. But again, first and foremost, one of my favorite players that I’ve been around and coached, and it’s like a salt of the earth throwback super athlete, is the way I look at Jaylen. So to his credit, he has not been satisfied with really anything that has come his way thus far in his young career. In the offseason, as I said before, he had the biggest jump from the time away from OTAs to training camp. He really came through and stepped his game up. And then what’s been the best part of the entire process is how he’s developed within the season. He’s learning from things, he’s being accountable. He is leading by example in a different way where he’s the young guy but he’s showing the responsibility that needs to be taken when the team counts on you to produce each and every week. So I’m really, really fortunate to coach him.”
(Got a game plan question for you and obviously not asking directly about strategy, but Green Bay’s run defense is I believe 29th in the league. When you see that, do you think there’s an opportunity or does it have to match up with something that you guys do well, kind of going to your strength?) – “Yeah, I think sometimes the numbers can be misleading. I think they’ve had a couple of games that have inflated that. I think they’re also extremely, extremely good at pass defense. So they sometimes are vulnerable when they’re choosing to do that. I think they play hard and they present a lot of problems and I do think they will take advantage of you if you are not prepared for how they play. To me, they’re a classic example of a team overall that has a lot of experience in big games. They’re in an unusual situation. I mean, shoot, I think Matt LaFleur had the greatest win percentage in the history of the National Football League going into the season. So having more losses than wins is very, very foreign to them and they’re used to playing playoff football and they have their backs against the wall but are also riding a win streak. So if you take that lightly at all, you will be wishing what you don’t want into existence. So I expect them to be the best version of themselves. Their rankings are an accumulation of an entire season, but right now they are coming into their very best football as the results have most recently presented themselves. So a good challenge for us to have to really compete against.”
(You mentioned Matt LaFleur. Obviously you guys are friends. What do you think he is best at?) – “Styling his hair. It’s really good. Brushing his teeth, too. He’s got very, very white teeth. (laughter) I think he’s best at, he has humility that really allows him to I think never really get complacent. Like a lot of people, he’s been through his fair share of things, but I think his honest intent and really ignoring the noise and staying true to himself is really, really underrated in terms of the perception of him. I think he’s handled everything about his job with class, whether that’s winning a lot or having any sort of turmoil. He’s one of the reasons they’ve been so successful. It is a different ballgame when you’re the head coach of the Green Bay Packers. You’re in a place where you are front and center, the main ticket, the big ticket, in that town and everything is combed and there’s high expectations. I think he gracefully manages a lot of things in a way that I really appreciate and has definitely rubbed off on me in my short journey as a head coach, so he’s a great person, a great football mind, hard worker and I think he’d probably be in the top three most attractive head coaches in the history National Football League. (laughter)”
(TE Hunter Long, we saw he played about a half dozen snaps last week. Where is he do you think in his career? What does he do well at this point?) – “He’s in a cool place where he’s starting to realize how his skillset can fit within this particular offense. I think he has done a good job with really going after it and I think he’s also done a good job of recognizing there’s another level to his game that he can really attack. I think it’s about, so often with tight ends in particular, how they’re being able to contribute to the team has so many variables involved, and there’s a lot of roster decisions too that dictate whether or not he’s able to be up. But when he is up, we definitely like utilizing his skill set, and are very, very happy to have him on the team.”
(You had to be happy as I’m sure seeing how RB Raheem Mostert ran last week, how he came back from the injury last year. Did you, General Manager Chris Grier and the medical staff do much research in February about guys who’ve had that injury, especially at that position, the difficulties of coming back? I imagine that’s something you weighed. And how satisfying has it been to see him make it all the way back?) – “I try to stay in my lane. But we had great conversations about hey, this is how I feel about this player. This is how I know him to be, and I know how many – he is different. He’s unique. He has, I think the fastest recorded times since they’ve been tracking that stuff, or some of the fastest, and he was doing it after being like 28, 29 years old. He one of those guys that as far as my experience is concerned, there’s been very few athletes that maintain and hold elite speed through their late 20s, early 30s. The first one that comes to mind is WR Joey Galloway. He’s in that breadth of just rare human being, rare athletic skillset. I was all in and aware that my conviction and my belief in the human being might lead us astray at some point. So they did their due diligence and fortunately, it matched up with my hope and expectations. It was really cool for the team to get a taste of Raheem in that way where he recognized a game that the team could really benefit from him taking his game to the next level. He had the look in his eye that was very familiar, and it was awesome to see him exhibit for the 1,900th time, ‘Hey, I can do this, even though some people think I can’t.’ He’s cut of a different cloth. He’s been counted out since he gotten in the league. And he’ll continue to exceed other people’s expectations because of his mindset, determination, and really, internal gifts.”
(This team has been pretty streaky, winning three, losing three, winning five … at this rate, if this trend continues, we’ll say like seven game winning streak that’ll put you at the Super Bowl. Have you all thought about those things and just trying to stay streaky?) – “No, the irony is, if you’re trying to go on a winning streak, the most important thing is to start a streak. I think guys have learned through experience and really we’ve been through some stuff this year, how you can’t get ahead of yourself. I think our team is embracing that. I honestly believe that our team is not taking winning for granted, especially in the eyes of a three-game losing streak. I feel comfortable speaking on behalf of the entire locker room and the coaching staff when I say that it’s a one game season. That cliché, you can figure out a different way to say it, but there’s one team on our schedule. Nothing matters beyond that. I don’t care about scenarios. I don’t care. The point is, is that you have to win a game to get in the playoffs. I know that much. We have to win. But you don’t want to get in the playoffs trying to pull yourself out of a slump. This game is the most important because it’s next but it’s also we need to strain to win a football game, and we need to be playing our best football in January, which has been the objective the whole time. So this game, whatever it leads to, if we win, we’ll think about next week. But we’re solely focused on the Green Bay Packers, their tremendous franchise and their Hall of Fame quarterback, etc.”
(As a fellow father of a two-year old girl, I’m curious, your game plan to crushing Christmas?) – “I think Christmas has already been crushed for me in terms of it’s really awesome when you have – my wife does such a good job with my daughter of building up ‘Dada’ time, and my daughter is such a good human spirit that just being around is unbelievable. It crushes in that way. And she just likes having me around. She definitely doesn’t take it for granted because a lot of times, it’s past her bedtime when we hang out. It’s been during the season that going into it, she could speak one word. Now she’s answering questions and stringing some stuff together and got a lot of demands. And I’ll crush Christmas because I will adhere to any and every of those demands. She’s got me around her finger. She knows it. I know it. And we’re all happy about it because it’s truly a blessing that I feel so fortunate to have the opportunity to be a father, let alone to a daughter like Ayla. I feel very proud.”
